India was well and truly in turmoil after the assassination of Indira Gandhi and the genocide of Sikhs. Indians were a deeply troubled lot. So when Lok Sabha elections were held weeks after Indira's death, Indians vested all their hopes on the young grandson of India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru. Rajiv Gandhi won a mandate that even Nehru could not have dreamt of. The Congress won close to 50% of the popular vote and an overwhelming majority in the Lok Sabha with more than 400 seats. He was looked upon as the charismatic, youthful leader in the mould of John F. Kennedy who would transform India. The expectations he generated were as high as Indira did in 1971 and current Prime Minister Narendra Modi did with his historic 2014 victory.
Rajiv's popularity soared in the early part of his tenure in 1985. His finance minister V. P. Singh (who would replace him as prime minister in 1989 after revolting against him) presented a forward looking Union Budget that promised to unfetter the Indian economy from socialist shackles. His visit to the United States and address to the US Congress were big successful events, almost akin to the visit of Modi to the US in 2014. Rajiv endeared himself further by behaving in a statesmanlike manner and signing two historic "peace" accords in Punjab and Assam. He talked about the promise of science and computers and appealed directly to Indian youth. He encouraged state owned Doordarshan with "freedom" that was unthinkable then.
And then disaster struck in the form of the two year itch. A Muslim lady named Shah Bano eventually landed up at the doors of the Supreme Court seeking alimony after her husband and divorced her. In a historic judgement, the Court ordered that alimony be paid and made it very clear that discrimination against women in such a blatant manner would not be allowed in the name of religion or tradition. While many progressive Muslims welcomed the verdict, the "Islam is in danger" group of Maulanas and politicians protested loudly against this verdict. Congress leaders like Arif Mohammed Khan delivered passionate and inspiring speeches in Parliament urging Muslims to move ahead with times. Only to feel betrayed. Rajiv used the brute majority of the Congress to overturn the Supreme Court verdict. It is only now, 30 years after that betrayal that Muslim women are again knocking on the doors of the Court over the "sensitive" issue of divorce.
When the Shah Bano controversy encouraged the rise of Hindutva outfits like the VHP, Rajiv blundered yet again by "unlocking" the Babri Masjid and allowing Hindus to pray in what they believed was the historic birthplace of Lord Ram. The furies that this single decision unleashed across India was so toxic that the country still suffers from its aftermath. The Babri Masjid-Ram Mandir issue and the manner in which all political parties misused it has done more to damage Hindu-Muslim relations than anything else since independence in 1947.
But the real whammy of the two year itch came in the form of Bofors. By early 1987, it was clear to all that the honeymoon period enjoyed by Rajiv Gandhi was well and truly over. V. P Singh had been shifted from the finance to the defense ministry allegedly "under pressure" from lobbies that felt threatened by Singh's almost evangelical pursuit of "honesty". Rajiv Gandhi himself presented a lackluster Budget in 1987. But all hell broke loose soon after that when it was revealed first in a Swedish radio broadcast that bribes had been paid during the purchase of the artillery gun named Bofors. Enormous and sustained efforts were made to wide step or block investigations and Rajiv Gandhi was forced to publicly decade that neither he nor any of his family members had taken any bribes for Bofors. But the Indian voter seemed to believe the worst. Rajiv lost his sheen, his charisma and his popularity.
Incidentally, there are many who fondly recall the better days when Rajiv promised so much. Gandhi family sycophants insist he would have transformed India if he was not assassinated in May 1991. Maybe he would have. But most forget yet another toxic legacy of his two year itch. Against better advice, "rigged" elections were held in Jammu & Kashmir in 1987. That marked the beginning of active militancy in the state.
